Gene Nichol: Work of the Poverty Center will go on

Published February 28, 2015

[caption id="attachment_5675" align="alignleft" width="150"]Gene Nichol Gene Nichol[/caption]

by Gene Nichol, Director UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, published in News and Observer, February 27, 2015.

I have no words to match the gratitude I feel for the astonishing support the poverty center has received, in recent weeks, from thousands across North Carolina and the nation. Students, faculty, alumni, engaged citizens, activists, social services providers, political, religious and institutional leaders and, perhaps most movingly, Tar Heels living at or below the edge of poverty have raised their voices and banners in protest.

Whether pressing for research on economic justice or more broadly for university-defining traditions of academic freedom, their words and actions have seared my heart and, not infrequently, moistened my eyes. They are not to be forgotten.

On an otherwise dark day for the University of North Carolina, I am happy to announce that, in response to the censorship efforts of the Board of Governors, an impressive array of foundations and private donors has stepped forward to assure that the work of the center, if not the center itself, will continue and markedly expand. Generous grants and donations will allow for the creation of a North Carolina poverty research fund at the law school to support our efforts to describe, document and combat the wrenching challenges of Tar Heel poverty.

The fund will allow us to hire student, faculty and post-doctorate scholars to assist me in probing the causes of, and solutions to, economic injustice. We will carry forward the work of the center within the halls of the university, but with greater flexibility and increased resources. North Carolinians are not easily cowered. They react poorly to petty tyrants. They always have. If the Board of Governors moves to block the creation of such a research fund - a turn that is not unlikely - I will be eager to join them in federal court.

But despite this heartening support for our research, none should be confused about what happened today in Charlotte. The university's governing board moved to abolish an academic center in order to punish its director for publishing articles that displease the board and its political benefactors. The governors said to a member of the faculty: We cannot allow your writings to go without rebuke. We may not be able to fire you, but we will do all we can to suppress your efforts. Criticisms of this governor and of this General Assembly, at this public university, are not to be tolerated. Were I to have praised the legislature's war on poor people rather than decry it, the board would have placed laurels on my head instead of boots on my neck.

These acts of state-imposed censorship, of course, constitute a core violation of the First Amendment. Lying about the motive for closure does nothing to assuage the transgression. The board's laughable charade of independent, merit-based "centers review" has fooled no one. Dishonest censorship is no improvement over straightforward suppression.

An ill wind blows across the UNC system. Its chill does not go unnoticed, as faculty members alter their research agendas and temper their investigations. Others launch plans to relocate to universities that, yet, embrace academic freedom. The members of the Board of Governors have demonstrated unfitness for their high office. Their actions represent a profound, partisan, and breathtakingly shortsighted abuse of power. They deserve our disdain, not our approval. Their decisions call for defiance, not supine submission. With many others, I'll do my best to provide it.

February 28, 2015 at 3:35 pm
Frank Burns says:

You sir are the petty tyrant to NC taxpayers. We pay you a salary to teach at a university. As a taxpayer, I charge you with neglect if you are being paid a full time salary, but are not involved in teaching full time. You are free to offer your opinion on poverty on your own time, but not while you are employed by the public to teach. Now we see why it takes students 5 years to graduate. Full time teachers are not teaching.

Believe it or not but the issue of people being in poverty does not need your phony support. Your inflated opinion of yourself and your efforts to date on helping alleviate poverty haven't accomplished anything worthwhile. The solution to poverty is finding jobs, not in expanding social programs. You are essentially an ambulance chaser doing that on the taxpayer's dime. I can't believe that anyone would throw away money to pay yourself to write your opinions. Fools and their money are soon parted.

March 1, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Greg Dail says:

"The governors said to a member of the faculty: We cannot allow your writings to go without rebuke. We may not be able to fire you, but we will do all we can to suppress your efforts. Criticisms of this governor and of this General Assembly, at this public university, are not to be tolerated."

Who on the Board of Governors said this? Who was it said to? This is absolutely outrageous that Gene Nichol would slander the good names of BOG members with accusations of partisanship without presenting a modicum of proof or at the very least naming names. This is demagoguery in its worst form and once again Gene Nichol shows us who he is.

March 1, 2015 at 8:05 pm
William Mauney says:

"The fund will allow us to hire student, faculty and post-doctorate scholars to assist me in probing the causes of, and solutions to, economic injustice."

I've got an idea for a solution. Pay one person under the poverty line your going salary (200k+) for one year. I'm not below the poverty line but I could take your salary for two years and be completely debt free, allowing me to take more of my own money (the part the government doesn't take from me for existing) to do good for others.

"These acts of state-imposed censorship, of course, constitute a core violation of the First Amendment."

Some would call it better use of taxpayer dollars. Can you still not speak out? Has removing government funds somehow removed your voice? Every person in this nation has a First Amendment right to speak out on whatever they choose. The First Amendment however does not guarantee you receive a government funded paycheck to do so. Let's see how these privately funded grants and donations feel about your exorbitant paycheck vs. the return on fewer people in poverty....

March 2, 2015 at 12:07 pm
Jeff DeWitt says:

As long as Nichol doesn't take a dime of our money or use any of UNC's (OUR) resources and puts in a full days work at his day job (or better yet quits, we REALLY don't need "teachers" like this), I could not care less what he does.

However if he uses any of our resources he should be fired and/or charged with theft.

Also, he ought to pull out a dictionary and look up the word "censorship", it seems odd that a university professor, supposedly an educated man, doesn't know the meaning of the word.

March 2, 2015 at 1:50 pm
Frank Burns says:

The portly professor is teaching 2 classes per year and earning $211,000. http://dailyhaymaker.com/?p=10633

That sounds like theft from the taxpayer to me. Here is one example of why university costs keep rising above the inflation rate.

March 2, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Jeff Tripp says:

Hey Nichols, where were you when Mike Adams was being denied promotions, tenure and lack of support from a UNC school? Is it because he is a Christian Conservative that your voice was quiet about HIS First Ammendment rights? Hypocritical liberals only care when other liberals are "injured" not about anyone else. To disagree with them is to be WRONG, no matter what.